A Prayer for the Saints

And read verse 21 with me. My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord. And all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever. And Father, we do praise you for your mighty works. Lord, works that are sometimes beyond even our finding out or understanding. And so Lord, we praise you for those. And Father, I ask that as we spend some time in the book of Ephesians this morning,

looking at this prayer of Paul. Lord, that you would continue to deepen our understanding of you. And that you would continue to deepen our prayer life. Father, we thank you for who you are. And we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians chapter 1.

The last time that we were together, we looked at our riches in Christ. Paul had told the Ephesian believers, who by the way, he was very close to. He had spent a great deal of time with and had a great heart for. He had told the Ephesians. He had told the Ephesian believers about all of the riches that they have in Christ. That God had blessed them with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Well, as he told them that and began sharing those things with them, I feel like spontaneous prayer sort of burst out of Paul. Because he knew that they would need to have the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives in order for them to truly grasp and understand all of the spiritual blessings that he had just explained to them. And so Paul breaks into a prayer for the Ephesian saints. As a matter of fact, the title of this morning's message is simply a prayer for the saints.

There's actually two prayers in the book of Ephesians. There's this one in chapter 1, which is a prayer for understanding. And then there's a prayer in chapter 3, which is a prayer for strength. But these prayers are really interesting for us to pay attention to. Before we get into what it has to say, I want to talk for just a moment about prayer. So as I was leading you through all the years,

I would always ask them anytime we'd come across things in prayer, I'd say, what do you struggle with about prayer? What kind of things make it hard for you to pray? And so they shared a handful of things with me. And I would always ask them that, because I don't think prayer comes naturally to us. It doesn't come naturally to me. So maybe you're a lot more spiritual than I am.

But I don't think prayer comes very naturally to us as human beings. Prayer is a very spiritual thing, and we're very fleshly by nature. And so the aspect of talking to God can sometimes be really difficult. Like I can have a conversation with you because you're sitting right in front of me, and I can say, I can see your face, and I can see your reactions. But when it comes to talking to God, it's a little bit more difficult,

because though he is with us spiritually, we can't see him face to face. And so sometimes that aspect of praying to God can be very difficult. So I would ask kids, what do you have a hard time with about prayer? And these are their top three answers. And may I say, I agree with them, and I bear witness with them. Number one, I don't know what to say. How many of you have found when you sit down to pray, you're like,

huh, what do you talk to God about? So we don't always know what to say. Number two, I want to pray according to God's will, and I don't always know what that looks like, and I think that that's a pretty valid point too. When we pray, we want to make sure we're praying what God wants, and not just what we want. And then number three, and this is one of my biggest struggles,

I can't stay focused. I either fall asleep when I pray, or I drift off into other thoughts when I pray, or things along those lines. Well, I feel like praying the scripture is the answer to those problems. Because scripture, if you're praying according to what scripture has to say, number one, you know what to say. Because it's written right down in front of you, right?

You've got like a little prayer list right in front of you, because it's scripture, right? Number two, you know it's according to God's will, because it's God's word, right? So you know you're praying according to God's will. And then number three, you can stay focused, because if you get distracted, you go, oh wait, number two. Right? And so it's a really important thing to learn to pray the scriptures.

As a matter of fact, I would highly encourage you, as you're reading through God's word, which you should be doing, as you're reading through God's word, take note of the prayers in scripture. As I said already, there's two of them in the book of Ephesians. There's one really good one in Colossians. There's a few in the Old Testament. Some of the prophets have some amazing prayers that they pray for the people.

Moses has some amazing prayers that he prays for the people. The Psalmist David, a good percentage of the Psalms, is actually prayers of the Psalmist David to God. And so pay attention to those things. And as you do so, begin to pray those prayers of scripture. Well, we're going to look at this one this morning. And so, as we look at this prayer, I took note of a couple of things.

Because sometimes we ask ourselves, yeah, but is this for me? Is this something that I should be praying for? Who is this prayer in the book of Ephesians for? Well, I said it was for three people. Number one, this is for ministry leaders. To be praying for those that they minister to. Remember, this is a pastoral prayer that Paul is offering for the Ephesians, right?

Because he was their pastor. And as he's looking at them and thinking about them, he's going to pray this for them. Because his heart is to shepherd. And the best way that he can shepherd his people is to pray for them. Number two, this prayer is for parents and grandparents to pray for their kids and grandkids. Because if you want to see your kids really know Jesus,

then you should pray this for them. You should take this as your own words to pray to God for those kids because they need to know God. And God can only be known in spiritual ways. Number three, this prayer is for you to pray for yourself. Because you need a greater spiritual understanding. You need a greater spiritual depth. And this prayer does exactly that in our lives.

So, it's for the ministry leader. It's for the parent and grandparent. It's for everyone. So, we pick up in verse 15 of Ephesians chapter 1. And this is what it says. For this reason, I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers.

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength, strength of His might, which He brought about in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

And He put all things in subjection under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all. Amen. Now this section of scripture, I've broken down into three pieces. We're going to see the intro to the prayer, the prayer itself, and then we're going to discuss the power, the power that He's going to ask that we can understand better.

So we start off with this intro to the prayer. Paul says, for this reason. Now, anytime you see somebody say something like that in scripture, what question should you naturally ask yourself? You should ask yourself, for what reason? Because that is a linking sentence, right? That ties us back to what was already said. Well, for what reason? Well, because we have all of these riches in Christ,

for this reason, I'm going to now pray for you. Because the things of the Spirit, which is what He had told us about, can only be spiritually discerned. And so for this reason, because He understands that the only way we can fully take in all of the spiritual riches that we have in Christ is if we pray that God would give us an enlightened spirit, an enlightened heart to understand them. For this reason, I'm going to pray for you.

He says, for this reason, I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, which exists among you, and your love for all the saints. He says, for this reason, and since I've heard a couple of things about you. Now, I love this, because you know what there was not in Paul's day? There was not social media. And yet, Paul had heard something about the Ephesian people, remember?

It's been a little while since he's been in Ephesus now, especially since he'd really spent any time in Ephesus. And yet, he's been in Ephesus for a long time. And yet, he's been in Ephesus for a long time. And yet, the report that Paul had heard while under house arrest in Rome from perhaps some of the other believers that knew the Ephesian believers is that two things seem to encapsulate the Ephesian people.

Number one was their faith. Number two was their love. Now, that word faith here is not the idea of saving faith. The idea of faith here is a day-by-day faith. Because you know as well as I do that it took saving faith to save us, but it takes day-by-day faith to live. That every day we live according to faith. Have you ever heard somebody say, listen, I'm not really into that whole God thing

because I feel like the whole God thing is just a crutch. Can I just go ahead and tell you it's more than a crutch, it's more like a wheelchair? Because it's the only way that I can get around every single day. Because my day-to-day faith is the only way that I can stand any of the things that are taking place in life right now. Because we need that faith every single day.

And sometimes that faith is not as magical as we make it out to be. It's just the belief that God will provide us with. God will provide for the very next thing that I need. He said, ever since I've heard about the fact that you have faith and the love that you have for all of the saints, now the word love that he uses there is the word agape, which is a divine sacrificial love that is only produced as one is yielded to the Holy Spirit.

He says, I've heard that there's two things that's true about you. You have faith in God and you have love for other people. Now I find it interesting that in this intro, he links those two things together. You know why? Because those are not mutually exclusive things. They are each codependent. You cannot have faith in God and not have love for people. Brothers and sisters, as the church,

that is a lesson we need pounded into our heads. If you say that you have faith in God and you do not have love for people, then I would tell you, I question whether you have faith in God. Because faith and love have to work together. Because your faith and love have to work together. Our faith in God will produce as a fruit, as we talked about in Galatians,

love for other people. Too many of us claim our faith in God while being hateful to the people around us. Sometimes even the people in our own church. And that ought not to be. Because if you have faith, it should produce love. But at the same time, you cannot have love for other people unless you have faith in God. You know why? Because none of us are very lovable.

You ever notice that? I like to think I'm the most lovable person I've ever met in my entire life. As a matter of fact, I'm convinced, I'm convinced that I'm the most lovable person that I've met in my entire life. I've yet to convince everybody else of that. Right? You know why? Because you think you're the most lovable person you've ever met in your entire life.

But you know what's hard to love is people. Why? Because we all have body odor. Right? And I'm not just talking about the B.O. that you covered up with some Old Spice this morning, fellas. I'm talking about sin nature. Right? We all can be difficult human beings. Therefore, I cannot have love for people unless I have faith in God. And then He can produce that love for people.

Faith. Faith and love will always work together. They are codependent in Scripture. So He says, For this reason I too, having heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, He says, I do not cease. Now I don't know if you realize, but in the Greek that means He doesn't stop. It means it's continual. There's two things He does continually.

Number one, He continually gives thanks for the Ephesian people. Now, it's not Thanksgiving, so you're probably not doing 30 days of thanks in the month of June, right? And yet, Paul here says that He continually gives thanks for people. Although I would venture to say when you do your 30 days of thanks, I don't know this for sure. I don't want to be judgmental,

but I know me. Typically, when we give our 30 days of thanks, what do we thank God for? We usually thank God for all of our things, right? A lot of times that's what we do. I hate to broad brush all of us, but that's kind of who we are as human beings. When's the last time you thanked God for a person? When's the last time you thanked God for the body of Christ here

at Calvary Chapel of Ark City? When's the last time you thanked God for the body of Christ in general? When's the last time you thanked God for the people in your life that show you so much love? Here's a good one. When's the last time you thanked God for the people in your life that are jerks? Isn't that great? I'll never forget somebody telling me this about a difficult person in my life.

They said, oh, don't worry. They'll be there as long as you need them, right? I hated them for it, right? I hate that somebody told me. But it's true. God will bring difficult people into our lives as long as we need them. And then one of two things will happen. They will either A, stop becoming, no, they will either A, not be viewed as difficult by you anymore.

They won't stop being difficult. They'll continue to be difficult. You just won't view them that way because God will give you a love for them or God will remove them. I've yet to have God remove any, right? He just changes our hearts towards people, right? They'll be there as long. You should thank God for those people. Lord, thank you for providing someone

that is rubbing the rough edges off of me. He says, I continually give thanks for you. And what else does he continually do? He says, I continually mention you in my prayers. Now, the most difficult thing for me about prayer is stopping to take time to pray because I'm an active human being and my mind works really fast and my body works really fast. And I'm not going to stop.

My body likes to move fast except when it doesn't move fast. But my mind is still working fast at that point in time. And so it's hard for me to stop, sit down, and pray. But God has shown me that I do have a prayer life. My prayer life is usually just on the move. And I've learned that that's okay because you know what else we're told in Scripture? We're told to pray without ceasing.

Now, most of us that grew up in the church, when you first learned how to pray, you learned to do two things, right? You learned to bow your head, and close your eyes. You know why? Because when you were a kid, you didn't know how to not be distracted and you wouldn't shut up, right? And so you had to be taught to do those things. And so oftentimes as we grow older,

we still view prayer as only bowing our heads and closing our eyes. But you know what's a really magical thing? You can pray without doing both of those. Matter of fact, we're told to pray without ceasing. And this has been my philosophy over the past few years of my life. My philosophy is this. When I wake up, I want to say, Dear God. And when I go to bed,

I want to say, Amen. And the entire day, I spend communing with God. I really gained this a lot when I worked construction. I didn't know what I was doing half the time. And my boss would give me a project and I would say, Dear Jesus. Right? And I wouldn't know what to do. And then the Spirit would intercede with groans that couldn't be uttered, right? I was the one groaning.

He was the one interceding. But I've learned that that's okay. That's what it is. And we're constantly making mention of people in our prayers. Do you know, do you know, that while Paul was in prison, he was actually doing ministry in Ephesus? Because when he was making mention of the Ephesian people, he was actually doing ministry in the city of Ephesus, even though he was under

house arrest in Rome. Do you know that at any given point in time, you could be doing ministry anywhere in the world simply by mentioning those people in your prayers? You could be doing missions work in India right now while you're sitting right here in Arkansas City, Kansas, because you're making mention of them in your prayers. You're not bound by location because the Holy Spirit is not bound by location.

He says, I constantly make mention of you in my prayers. Well, now that we've seen an introduction to it, let's get into the prayer itself. There's a handful of things he does here. Let's read through it one more time and then we'll go out and point these things, go through and point these things out. Verse 17. He says that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance and the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might. Now, a handful of things that he prays for us.

Number one, he prays that you may know him. Notice what it says in verse 17. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. He prays that the very God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of all glory, would grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation. What does he mean by grant you a spirit?

Well, what we have to understand is anytime a spirit is referred to, our spirit is referred to, it speaks of our disposition or attitude. And yet at the same time, the only place enlightenment can come from is from the Lord. The Holy Spirit. So what he's praying is that the Holy Spirit will give your disposition and attitude, the very core of who you are, that he would bless you with a spirit of wisdom and revelation.

Ryan, what on earth does that mean? Let me read it to you out of the Amplified Bible. That he would give you deep and personal insight. Ah, now that makes sense. The spirit of wisdom and revelation means that God wants to give to you. Paul is praying that God would give to you a spirit that has deep, personal insight. And what does he want us to have deep and personal insight into?

The knowledge of him. Why? Because God is not known through intellectual pursuit. God is known through revelation. God is known through spiritual revelation. Now this gives a lot of hope to the rest of us, right? I've got a friend, and my friend is actually a theologian. And it's actually, it's actually his job. He has like a doctorate. He teaches at a university.

And he's incredibly smart. I actually messaged him a couple of questions the other day. And he messaged me back. And I used the dictionary to figure out what he said. Because he's just an incredibly intellectual guy, right? I actually used to be one of my youth group kids. And I'm like, it's just mildly embarrassing that my former youth group kid can now run rings around me

when it comes to theological conversations. It was a great conversation. But if God was only known through intellectual pursuit, who would be the only people that could know God? People like him. The really intellectual people. And yet God's not known that way. How is God known? God is known by spiritual revelation. By him giving to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation

and the knowledge of him. That means that God wants to make known to everybody, the geniuses of the world and the average people of the world alike, everything that there is to know about him. And he does it through that spirit of wisdom and revelation. But I love that this deep personal insight, is not just so that I can impress my friends with my knowledge.

It's so that I can know God. It's so that I can know the one who is both the source and the purpose of all knowledge. The word knowledge here means accurate and true, thorough, full knowledge. He prays that they would have a complete, thorough, full knowledge of the very source of knowledge himself. The very purpose for their existence. Because the drum that I will beat

for my entire life until the day that I go home to be with Jesus is that you were created to know God. It is the highest pursuit that you can have. It is the greatest achievement in your life when you come to a place of knowing him. And the fascinating thing about knowing God is that you can know him now and you can know him better in the future. You can know him now

and there will always be more to learn. He is the unsearchable God. And he prays that we would know more. That we would have a deeper knowledge and understanding of the unsearchable God. He prays for a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Number two, he says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. That the eyes of your heart

may be enlightened. That word enlightened means to be in a state of illumination. And he uses an interesting phrase there when he says the eyes of your heart. Now, I don't know a ton about anatomy. I know we have some doctors in here. As far as I know, your heart doesn't have eyes. Is that true, my doctor friends? Yes, I'll agree with that. Your heart doesn't have eyes.

So what does he mean? The eyes of your heart would be enlightened. We see the Greeks viewed the heart as the very core center of man. As the center of his very being. The center of his very purpose in life. Therefore, he says, may the very core of who you are have eyes that are open to see spiritual truth. You know why he prays that? Same reason he prays that they would have a spirit of wisdom

and revelation and the knowledge of God. Because the spiritual things can only be spiritually discerned. And so he prays that their eyes would be enlightened to have true knowledge. True heart knowledge. I was talking with the kids about this at camp last week. We were talking about someone having a true heart for God. The difference between having a heart knowledge of God

and having a head knowledge of God. The difference between your head being in it and your heart being in it. So I asked them all a question. I said, okay, how many of you, your moms made you get up for school every day? Your mom made you get dressed every morning. How many of you, your mom made you go to school? Yep. And you went, right? And they all said, yeah, we all went.

I said, now, how many of you have to be told more than once that it's time to go swimming? Nobody raised their hand. I said, how many of you are just going to be waiting at the door ready? You know why? Because you're going to be waiting at the door ready. Because your heart wants to go swimming. Your heart doesn't want to go to school. That's the difference

between a head knowledge of God and a heart knowledge of God. You see, that's why God's desire is to get a hold of our heart, to give us a true heart knowledge. Because once it's in your heart, nobody has to tell you to do it. Once it's in your heart, nobody has to force you to do it. I had somebody ask me recently, why do you like to run? Because most people look at running

as the worst punishment in the world. I remember somebody saying, talking about track, they said, our sport is your sport's punishment. Because that's how most people view running. So why do you like it? I said, because I don't view it as something I have to do. I view it as like, it's my sanctuary with God. When I go run, nobody has to tell me to do it because that's a place

where I commune with the Lord. It's not about how fast I go, praise God. It's not about how far I go. It's not about any of those things. It's about my time to commune with God. Therefore, it's something that's in my heart. So nobody has to tell me to do it. As a matter of fact, I see somebody else out running and I'm like, sounds good to me. Let's go. Right?

It's just the way that it is. And that's the way when something's in our heart, we have a true heart knowledge of it. Nobody has to force you to do it because it's in your heart. And so he says, I pray that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened, that you would have a true heart knowledge. And what does he want to have a true heart knowledge of? Well, that brings us to our next thing.

The hope of his calling. The hope of his calling. The word hope means a confident expectation. In the Amplified Bible, they said it like this, a divine guarantee. I like that. I thought that was a great statement. A divine guarantee. Hope is confident expectation and a divine guarantee. So he says, I want your eyes to be open so that you can have a true heart knowledge

of the hope of his calling. Well, that should bring up another question in your mind. What is the, what's the hope of his calling? Well, the hope of his calling, his calling is nothing other than eternity itself. The fact that you are being prepared for a place that is beyond here. The things of this world should grow dim because the things of eternity are what you're waiting for.

You know, one of the greatest problems that we face in the church is, is that we've lost our eternal perspective because everything in the world looks so appealing to us. And we have brought so much of the world into the church that we've forgotten that the world is not what the church is meant for. And the only way to cure that is if we have a true heart knowledge of the hope of his calling. That if our hearts truly understand that this place is not our home.

You see, I think the fact that we don't understand our eternal perspective oftentimes causes us fear. We fear things we should never fear. We fear those that can hurt our body, right? Instead of the God who is in control of our soul. We fear what diseases are going to do to us. We fear what sickness is going to do to us. We fear what people are going to do to us.

We fear what's going to happen in this world. And all of this fear is because we've forgotten, this place isn't our home. I have a hope beyond here. I have a hope beyond this place. And I don't have to be held down by all the fear of this world because this is not what I'm intended for. You should have an aching that goes outside of this place. But you know what else?

That lack of eternal perspective causes us to care about the things of the world. We'll use the word materialism. It causes us as a church to be very materialistic. You know why? Because all we care about are the things of this world sometimes. If we don't have an eternal perspective. Pretty soon, the house is the most important thing we own. The car is the most important thing

that we own. Your job is the most important thing in your life. Money is your greatest pursuit in life. Why? Well, because you've forgotten your eternal perspective. You've forgotten that all of those things are going to burn. Don't get me wrong. They're not on fire yet. You should take care of your stuff. You should hold on to your job because it's your place of witness.

But hold on to it knowing that it's simply the means that God is providing for you to be a witness on this earth until you go home to be with Him. The car that you own is simply your means of transportation so that you can be a witness for Him. Your home is your place of sanctuary where you can raise your family so that you can train them to be a witness for Him because that house is not your home. You have an eternal home not made with hands.

Eternal in the heavens. But we can't have that perspective if we don't have that perspective. We can't have that perspective if we don't have that perspective. We don't have a true heart knowledge of the hope of His calling. And He knows that. And so Paul prays for those Ephesian people. He says, I pray that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened to know

the hope of His calling. The next thing he prays for them is that they would understand His inheritance in the saints. Let me read this to you. Verse 18. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of His calling and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. Who's the His? Well, the His is none other

than God Himself. Now, in the first set of verses that we looked at in Ephesians chapter 1, we were told that we have an inheritance. What's our inheritance? Well, that's the hope of our calling. That's eternity. Our inheritance is eternity. So what is His inheritance? What is God's inheritance? It's us. Do you know that about yourself? Do you know that about yourself?

Do you know that about yourself? Do you know that about yourself today? Do you understand that as a believer in Jesus Christ, that's who you are? You are God's inheritance, right? And if I'm God, I'm like, man, did I get the short end of the stick, right? It's kind of like those t-shirts that say, my friend went to Arizona and all they brought me was a stupid t-shirt, right?

Like, I feel like we're all going to have to wear those t-shirts in heaven. But that's not how God feels. You know how God feels? God feels that we're His inheritance. That we're the greatest thing that He is waiting for. You're the greatest thing that He's waiting for. You know what that means? It means your life has value. It means your life has value to God.

Not just value on this earth, but value eternally. And it's not just because He created you, but because He views you as His greatest riches. I think the best way I can illustrate this is for us to go back to the book of Matthew. Go to Matthew chapter 13.

And I want you to look at verses 44 through 46.

Matthew 13, 44 through 46. These are the kingdom parables that Jesus tells to the people of Israel. To His disciples. And this is what it says. It says, The kingdom of heaven, verse 44, Matthew chapter 13. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field which a man found and hid again. And from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and he buys the field.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls. And upon finding one pearl of great value, he went in and sold all that he had and he bought it. Friends, those two stories, that's what he means when he says you're his inheritance. And he wants you to understand the great riches that Christ sees in you. See, the parable of the man that found the treasure

in the lost field goes like this. For some reason he's out digging in the field. Why? I have no idea. It's not my story. He's out digging in a field and as he's digging in this field, he finds, oh my gosh, there's this buried treasure. That's worth more than I can ever imagine. But it's not mine because it's not my field. So I'll bury it back again and then I'll go

and I'll buy the field. So he goes into town, finds out who owns the field. He says, how much do you want for that pasture? It's just pasture land. Pay me X amount of dollars. Pays him X amount of dollars and he goes out. He doesn't care about the field. He digs out the treasure because he didn't need a field. He wanted the treasure. Let me put this in perspective of Jesus for you.

You see, Jesus looked at you and he said, that's the greatest treasure I can ever imagine. But the world's been sold into sin. So I'll just bury that for now and I'll figure out the price of the world. The price of the world was his own precious blood. So he went, he became a man and dwelt among us and he died and he purchased the whole world for himself. He didn't need another planet.

He wanted you. And that's exactly how precious you are. In the eyes of God. The story of the pearl of great price is exactly the same. A merchant's going out looking for pearls and he sees this one and he's like, oh my gosh, that's the most beautiful pearl I've ever seen but it's worth everything in the world and so he goes and sells everything that he has so that he can go

and buy the one pearl which is exactly what Jesus did for us. He said, I love them so much that I will give up everything so that I can have them. Brothers and sisters, the world is telling us constantly what your value is. What your value is according to dollars. What your value is according to your abilities. What your value is according to your looks. What your value is

according to what you can contribute to society and God says, I want you to throw all of that understanding out because your value is not at all based on any of that. Your value is based upon the fact that I created you and I love you more than you can ever imagine. And I want whoever in this room who feels like their life doesn't have very much value to know and understand that Jesus views you as his greatest treasure. He thinks you're the greatest thing he could ever imagine and he loves you that much.

He says, I pray that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened so that you would understand the glorious riches of his inheritance in the saints. Back to Ephesians. The last thing that he prays for them is that they would understand the greatness of his power. The greatness of his power. Pick up in verse 19. It says, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power

toward us who believe? These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might. Now, Paul uses an incredible number of synonyms here to make sure that we fully understand the amount of power that we have. He says, I want you to understand the greatness of his power towards you. The super abounding greatness of his power. So he uses a handful of Greek words

to point this out. I can't pronounce the Greek words, but let me tell you what they mean. The first Greek word that he uses means his dunamis inherent power. The second word means power in exercise. The third word means manifested strength. And the fourth word means strength as an endowment. So let's look and see where he puts those in there. He says, and what is the surpassing

greatness of his power toward those who believe of his dunamis inherent power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working or the power in exercise of his manifested strength and of his strength as an endowment. You think Paul wanted to get across to us that God has a lot of power to use in our lives? You think Paul wanted to get across to us that God's mighty power that is at work in all of us is something that maybe we don't fully grasp?

You should ask yourself a question right now. Why does he use so many different words? Why does he use so many different words to tell us about the great power that we have in Christ? Because most of us live powerless. Because he knew that we as human beings have a tendency to live according to our own power. And I don't know if you've realized this or not.

And if you haven't, it's time to realize that you don't have any. You don't have any kind of strength. You don't have what it takes to live the Christian life. I'm sorry. I wish I could be like, you've got it all. You've got everything. If you'll just try a little bit harder. No. If you just try a little bit harder, you know what you'll do? Fail a little bit longer.

Right? Because you don't have that kind of power. But God does. And it's yours to be accessed through Jesus Christ. But many of us are trying to live according to our own power. Therefore, we're living powerless. And because we're living powerless, we still live in the exact same sins that we've always lived in. We still live in the exact same failure that we've always lived in.

We still live as spiritually bankrupt instead of spiritually rich. And God wants you to know that He has great power that He wants to use in your life. Now, I want you to understand something about this power. This power is not so that you can stop a train with your bare hands. It's not that kind of power, right? It's not the power so that you can go out and heal everybody on your way to work.

It's not that kind of power. I mean, if God chose to do that, He could. But I'm thinking He's probably not going to do that. But it's an inherent power that dwells in you that God wants to exercise in a mighty way in your life. So why do we need to know about this power that's available to the believer? Well, it's available for us for two reasons. Number one, it's available to us

for victorious Christian walks. See, God doesn't want you to live in the abject failure that you're living in right now. God doesn't want you to live going back to that same website. God doesn't want you to live going back to that same bottle. God doesn't want you to live going back to smoke another joint because that's the only way you know how to make it through another day.

Or to take more painkillers because that's the only way you know to survive life. Not because you need to. You need them physically but because you need them emotionally. God doesn't want you to continue to live in those things. God does not want you to live in constant fear in your life. God does not want you to live in constant condemnation in your life. God doesn't want that for you.

God wants you to live victorious because brothers and sisters, in Christ you are more than conquerors. Not because of who you are but because of who He is. And yet many of us in our Christian lives continue to live in defeat. And I think it has to break the heart of God knowing that I've got all of this stuff for you and you won't use any of it.

Can you imagine? Can you imagine the tools that are available to us and yet we're still using piddly little hand tools. All the power tools in the world are available and you're still struggling and straining. I'm still struggling and straining. Why? Because my eyes are not always open to the power that I have through Jesus Christ in my life to live victorious.

But it's not just that. God wants to use that power in your life so that you can serve Him in a powerful way. I think the worst thing that happened to the church is when we quit telling people everybody's in ministry. When we quit, when we started telling people that you just fill the pews, let the pastor do all the work. I'm not really sure when that started happening

but I think it's the worst thing that ever happened to the church because that is not at all what we see in the book of Acts. That is not at all what we see as far as what God, what God has intended for the church. What God has intended for the church is the moment that you got saved, you were called. You were called into ministry and God wants to use you in an incredibly powerful way.

You're like, I can't do much. You don't need to do much. Just do what God tells you to do. Fill the role that God wants you to fill. One of my favorite stories is the salvation story of Charles Spurgeon. Charles Spurgeon is probably one of the greatest preachers that's ever lived. And Charles Spurgeon has an amazing testimony of how he got saved. Do you know that the church

that he got saved in, the guy that was preaching that day wasn't even the pastor because the pastor was not there. He wasn't even the pastor. He wasn't even the pastor because the pastor quit and they just needed somebody to get up and give a message. And so a guy got up and gave a message and he preached on a verse. A verse that was really important to Charles Spurgeon

but it was the verse, look unto me all the ends of the earth and be saved. That was the only verse that pastor preached on. He preached on it for about 20 minutes, closed his Bible and went away. And then Charles Spurgeon got saved because he heard the verse, look unto me all the ends of the earth and be saved. Friends, you don't need to be the most powerful preacher

in the world. You don't need to be the best Bible scholar in the world. You just need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. And then God's going to do whatever He wants to do through you. But too many of us live non-victorious, non-powerful lives because we think, well, I just don't have enough in me. There's a great story in Scripture. Again, it comes out of the book of Matthew.

Jesus with His disciples. And they were out on a hillside and a whole bunch of people were gathered and Jesus was preaching and it kind of got to be late in the day and Peter goes, hey Jesus, y'all need to go and send these people home. They're going to need to get some food. And Jesus looks at them and says, you feed them. And they're like, with what? All we have is

five loaves and two fish. And Jesus said, that's just enough. Have them all sit down. They all sat down. Jesus lifted up them five loaves and two fish, prayed over them, blessed them, broke them, started handing them out. One thing led to another. Five thousand men plus women and children, they all got fed. How'd they do that? Because Jesus knew the surpassing greatness

of His power toward those who believe. And that same power is at work in you. You bring your nothing and let God make it everything. So, all of this is available to us so that we can be victorious in our Christian walks and also powerful in our service. Now, the amazing thing is that Paul starts talking about the power of God that's available to us and he couldn't stop.

So, he sort of goes off on a tangent. Now, I appreciate this about Paul because Paul kind of gets distracted and goes off and just talks about other things for a little bit and then gets back to his point. I appreciate that because I'm the same way. So, the last section that we'll look at in these verses is simply labeled power. It says, and what is the surpassing,

start in verse 19 again, the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in us in accordance with the working of the strength of His might, new material, which He brought about in Christ Jesus when He raised Him from the dead. Now, I would hope that sends a little bit of a, right, like a little cool breeze down your back because when you realize that all of the power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead is the same power that's available to you, in order to live as God has called for you to live, that the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead is what is coursing through you through the power of the Holy Spirit. Not only that, not only is it the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead,

but notice what it says, it's the same power that when He raised Him from the dead, verse 20, He seated Him at His right hand in heavenly places. It's the same power that seated Christ at the right hand of the authority of the Father. Now, I want you to think about what took place when Jesus was seated at the right hand of the Father. What took place first?

We call it the Ascension, right? The Ascension of Jesus Christ. It's always a tough call for me what I find absolutely more fascinating. The Resurrection or the Ascension. I like to think about the Ascension quite a bit because it's kind of a fascinating thing to think about because there Jesus was, right? He's surrounded by His disciples on the hillside there in Galilee

and He tells them, hey, listen, you all need to go hang out in Jerusalem for a little bit. You're going to receive the power of the Holy Spirit and then you're going to go all over the place and you're going to tell people about Me. And as He tells them those things, it says that He ascended into heaven. I don't know if you've ever really thought about the complexity of Jesus ascending into heaven, what it would have looked like, what that would have been like.

I do have a few questions about that, questions that I'll never have answered, but still questions that I have nonetheless because I picture what these things might look like in my mind. Like, was this a slow situation?

Just kind of a slow lifting up? I hope it wasn't too fast. Otherwise, I feel like it would have really screwed with the disciples. Was it a little bit quicker? Did He walk? Like, was it, you know, like slowly but surely like stairway to heaven sort of situation kind of a thing? Like, just walked His way into heaven? I don't know. But can you imagine the amazing power it would have taken

to lift Him up into heaven and then that same power seated Him at the right hand of the Father? That's the power that's available to you. Not only did it seat Him at the right hand of the Father, but notice what it says. Far above, verse 21, all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And that same power

is what placed Jesus above everything else. And now that Jesus who's placed above everything else, according to that power, He's at work in you. It says, He put all things in subjection under His feet. He gave Him His head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Brothers and sisters, don't live, don't live powerless.

There's a great power that God wants to use in your life. God wants to move in you powerfully. You just need to understand what's available. Now as we close out here this morning, actually I'm going to ask you all to stand, if you guys would stand with me.

As I mentioned, you guys should be praying this for yourselves. You should be praying this for your kids and your grandkids. You should be praying this for those who perhaps you have in your, in your ministries. And so as we close out here this morning, I'm just going to pray this passage of scripture for us. Because if I was going to pray this for you guys,

and I do, this is how I would pray it for you. So this is how I'm going to close this out. See if you'd bow your heads and close your eyes. Father, we come before you. And Lord, I thank you that you are a God who hears and answers our prayers. Lord, I thank you that, that you have provided us with this gift of prayer. Lord, I confess that sometimes I don't use it.

I don't utilize it as well as I, as I should. But Lord, you still bless us with it anyway. And Father, I thank you so much for the saints here in Ark City. Lord, for the brothers and sisters here at Calvary Chapel, both in the building and those that are watching online. And Lord, I just thank you so much for them. And Father, for all of us as believers in Jesus Christ,

all of the saints here at Calvary Chapel, Lord, I pray that you would bless us, Father, that you would give to us the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of you. Father, would you give us a deeper insight into who you are? Father, give us a, give us a deeper insight, Lord, into your character and your nature. Give us a deeper insight and understanding into who you really are and what you really are like and how you want us to serve and worship you, Lord.

Would you give us deeper insight into your word, deeper insight into what it looks like to have fellowship and communion with you. Lord, I pray that you would bless us with that. Lord, I pray that you would bless us with that spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of you. And Lord, would you enlighten the eyes of our heart? Father, would you give us

spiritual understanding? Give us a true heart knowledge that we need, Lord. And Father, in that true heart knowledge, in that enlightened way, I pray that we would understand the hope that we have. Father, I pray that we would understand the hope of eternity, that we would not live in the fear of this earth. Lord, that we would not live according to the materialism

of this earth. Lord, that we would not live thinking that this place is it for us, but that we would live knowing that we have something beyond here, that we have a home made eternal in the heavens. Father, give us that understanding of the hope that we have in you. And Father, would you give us spiritual eyes, Lord, to see the great love that you have for us, the way that you view us, Lord, that we are your inheritance, that our lives are valuable because not only have we been created by you, but we've been saved by you, Lord.

Would you give us that, that depth of understanding of the inheritance that you see in us? And Father, would you give us an understanding of the power that works in us, Lord? The same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead, Lord, may we utilize it, may we understand it and live by it, Lord. May we not live powerless, may we not live in defeat, may we not live in fear, but may we live in the confidence of the power of the Holy Spirit.

And Father, we trust that you hear and answer these prayers. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. Father's love for us. And I'll measure. He should give his only son.

Measure.

Father turns his face away.

The chosen one.

Hear my mocking voice.

The scoffer has brought me life. Still proud most in Jesus Christ.

When I came from his reward.

This I know with all my stuff.

His reward.

Answer.

This I know. With all my heart. His wounds have paid my ransom.

His love for us beyond all measure. His son to make a wretch his treasure.

Oh, God. You would make a wretch. It's just that we have to pray as we leave here today, Lord God. We have that constant connection with you. We praise you. We thank you. Oh, God's people, you guys have a wonderful week. God bless you.